Minister of Housing & Urban Affairs Shri Hardeep Singh Puri has expressed serious concern over sanitation workers dying while manually cleaning clogged sewers in the national capital. Participating in ‘Swacchata Hi Sewa’ campaign organized by the Central Public Works Department (CPWD) at India Gate here today, the Minister stressed the need for mechanized cleaning of sewers.

Addressing a gathering after felicitating the winners of Swacchata Painting Competition for students organized by CPWD, Shri Puri said his concern over unsafe and manual cleaning of sewers was shared by the Chief Minister of Delhi Shri ArvindKejriwal met him on Tuesday this week. He further said a good portion of the Rs.300 cr sanctioned by his ministry for the three Municipal Corporations of Delhi would be spent on procuring mechanized sewer cleaners. Shri Puri said that the national capital of Delhi is among the major global cities of the world and it needs to be clean to be worthy of that status.

Shri Puri appealed to the citizens of Delhi and other agencies like hotels not to dump garbage in to sewers so as to prevent their clogging. “We should give up the attitude of we litter and others would clean” the Minister said and called for ensuring segregation of waste at source on a war footing in the national capital.

Stating that the ongoing ‘Swacchata Hi Sewa’ campaign, started on the 15th of last month has proved to be a trigger towards making the country clean. He informed that as per the reports last received, over 80 lakhcitizens have enthusiastically participated in this campaign in the urban areas of the country. A total of over 3.50 lakh mass action campaigns have been taken up so far, he said.

Shri DurgaShankerMishra, Secretary(HUA) spoke of the need for making cleanliness a part of daily lives to realise Clean India.

Shri AbhaySinha, DG of CPWD said his organization is adopting clean and new construction technologies to ensure a neat and tidy environment besides focusing on energy efficient construction to reduceCarbon footprint. He informed that CPWD built 1,200 toilet for Mahanadi Coalfields at a cost of about Rs.20 cr.

The on the spot painting competition on the theme of Swacchata organized by CPWD witnessed enthusiastic participation with over 200 students from 15 schools showcasing their ideas and vision about cleanliness in colors. Students of GyanBharti School, Saket won the first prize in both the categories in the age groups of 8-10 and 11-14 years. Master ShubhamSamantaray and Ms.ShreyaSamantaray have won in respective categories. Students from ManavBharti School, Panchsheel Park, Sona Public School, Khanpur, SDMC Pratibha School, Mithapur Base and Hamdard Public School, Shalimar Bagh were among the prize winners.

Shri Puri also felicitated Ms.Akanksha, a differently abled student for depicting in colors her view of cleanliness.